


Misunderstandings

by DianaandAlicia



Series: SPD Stories [6]
Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Althea has a sensory processing disorder, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Stimming, The other kids that were with Max and Annie and Dylan are there too, We just don't know their names, picky eating, there is a fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 22:04:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19981255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DianaandAlicia/pseuds/DianaandAlicia
Summary: Alicia is frustrated, and unfortunately, she takes her anger out on Al and Al's sensory processing disorder.





	Misunderstandings

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! I've got another SPD story for you! Y'all know the drill, be kind and respectful, and I hope you like it!

“I don’t want them!” Althea whined, pushing her plate away. The group was back at the denim factory and it’s been about two weeks since they arrived back. Everyone in the group was getting ready to eat supper and John had put some radishes on Al’s plate.

“Have you ever had a radish before?” Sarah asked, trying to be gentle. Alicia knew how to handle Al’s picky eating better than anybody but she was out in the warehouse that had the radio set up. Morgan was trying to get ahold of people and she was trying to get him to join them for supper.

“No.”

“Then try one. You might like it.” Sarah finished off, not wanting Al to have a meltdown.

Al picked up a radish and bit off a small chunk, before chewing and making a face. It was a bad texture, a bad flavor, a bad food.

“Well at least you tried it.” Victor said, happy that Al at least tried it before pushing her plate away.

“What’s going on here?” Alicia asked as she sat down next to Al.

“She doesn’t like radishes.” Charlie filled her in and Alicia nodded in understanding.

“Well, eat the other stuff and we’ll figure out the rest.” Alicia said, and everyone could tell from the hard edge of her voice, that Alicia was annoyed. Not at Al in particular, but annoyed at the day. Morgan has been out by the radio for hours and he still won’t come inside. He’s hellbent on helping people and he won’t listen to Alicia, who thinks that they shouldn’t be wasting all this time helping people who aren’t there.

Alicia thought that it was for the best if they worked on making the denim factory a home, especially since they have eleven new children, Dwight, Daniel, Grace, and a cat to add to the mix.

“No.” Al said quietly, pushing the fish around on the plate. She was sick of fish and vegetables. She wanted something else for dinner.

“Excuse me?” Alicia asked, her patience wearing thin. Usually she was understanding about Al’s picky eating, but they were in the middle of the apocalypse, and were lucky to have what they have.

“No.” Al answered again, pushing the plate away from her.

Everyone was used to Al’s stubbornness, especially when it came to foods that she didn’t like, and they were also used to Alicia being gentle, trying to coax some food into Al’s system. What they weren’t expecting was for Alicia to snap.

“No? Althea you’re a god damn adult. Grow the fuck up and eat your supper.”

Al flinched and shrank back in her seat a bit. Alicia’s never reacted like this before.

“I don’t like it.”

“We are extremely lucky to have what we have. Think of the example you’re setting for the children.” Alicia scolded, motioning towards Charlie, Max, Annie, Dylan, and the others. “They are acting more mature than you.”

“I don’t want it.” Al snapped, growing defensive. In a final act of defiance against what Alicia would want, Al shoved her plate over the side of the table, the food landing on the floor.

“Althea!” Alicia scolded. All was silent in the dining area. Nobody knew what to do.

“Get out of our sight. If you refuse to eat what is put in front of you, you can go without.” Alicia said in a low, dangerous tone. She did not appreciate perfectly good food being put to waste.

“Alicia—” June started to say, but the younger girl cut her off.

“She won’t starve to death over one meal. She can wait until breakfast. Althea, go.”

Al quietly stood up, her face burning with humiliation. She left the table without another word and she went up to the bedroom that she shared with Alicia. The second the door was closed, she immediately started to cry, regretting her actions from before. Fish wasn’t a bad food for her, she was just sick and tired of eating it. If she choked it down without complaining, this never would have happened. She realized that everybody else was probably sick and tired of fish too, but they weren’t whining. They ate it because they were thankful that they had food.

Instead of being thankful, Althea acted like a selfish brat.

Not really knowing what else to do, Al picked her camera up and held it, before going over to the bed and hugging it close to her.

Al’s camera was her comfort object, and it was very important to her. Her mother had given it to her for Christmas when she was fourteen, and sometimes she talked to the camera, thinking that she was able to communicate with her mother that way.

She told her camera the story of what just went down, thinking that getting it off her chest would help her feel better. This conversation was private, and she didn’t even have a tape in or the power on. She was just talking to the camera the same way she’d talk to a person, or how a little kid might talk to a stuffed animal.

Once she was done talking, she put the camera away. The talk didn’t do much to help her and she only felt worse. She wanted to go down and apologize to everyone for making a scene, but Alicia had banished her from the table for the night, so she wasn’t entirely sure if she was welcome or not.

With not much else to do, Al took the time to get ready for bed, and after that was done, she sat cross-legged in the empty corner of the bedroom, on the floor. If she was going to act like an immature child, she could sit in a timeout like one too.

Althea sat for a long time. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she could hear some noise from downstairs. She knew when supper was finished and when everyone was gathering down in the living area to play various board games. It was family game night, and all of a sudden, she felt a bit left out, wanting to play too.

About ten minutes after she heard everyone setting stuff up, Alicia came into the bedroom and Al turned to look at her. The older girl started to grow hopeful, thinking that Alicia was going to invite her to join them.

Instead, Alicia shut the door behind her and sat on the bed, looking at Al.

“I am very disappointed in your behavior. I know I’ve been laxer when it comes to your picky eating but you seriously need to understand that we can’t just go to the grocery store and buy what you like. We have a specific supply of food available and we can’t waste it, or take it for granted. I know there are some foods, like corn, that you literally can’t eat, but you have to put your big girl pants on and deal with foods that can be tolerable. Do you understand me Althea?”

Al nodded, not because she agreed with Alicia, but because she didn’t want her girlfriend to be disappointed in her anymore.

“Good. Come over here, I’ll tuck you in.”

“But I want to play games with everyone downstairs.”

“No. You acted atrociously at the table tonight, you need an early bedtime. You can play board games next Thursday.”

“But—”

“No buts. Go to bed.” Alicia said sternly, and Althea sighed, getting into her side of the bed.

After Alicia tucked her in, she went over to the door and opened it.

“Goodnight, I love you.” She said to Al, but Al only glared at Alicia and didn’t respond.

“Whatever.” Alicia mumbled under her breath, before shutting the door behind her as she left.

Al grumbled to herself as she laid in bed. It made her angry how sometimes, Alicia treated her like she was a child, as if her having a sensory processing disorder made it ok. Althea really wanted to play a board game; she’s been looking forward to game night all week.

Eventually, the denim factory quieted down it was time for everyone to start turning in. Alicia was quiet when she entered the room, because she assumed Al was asleep. It had been almost three hours since she tucked Althea in so it was more than reasonable to think that she was sleeping.

Al however, was not sleeping. She had her eyes shut and she pretended to sleep. She still had it in her mind that she wanted to play  a board game, and she’d do it, even if it meant playing alone.

Althea waited until Alicia was asleep and she got up, and snuck down to where they kept the board games. She found a deck of cards and decided to play solitaire.

Althea sat down on the floor in the living area and opened the cards, starting to play the game. She played over and over, happy to get in a rhythm of familiarity.

“What are you doing?”

Althea whipped around, startled, and saw Sarah standing behind her.

“Games.” Al said quietly, pointing to the cards. “‘Licia wouldn’t let me play.”

Sarah nodded in understanding. She knew how much Althea loved game night, and could see why Al wanted to play something. It was a routine to play games on Thursday, and Alicia disrupted that routine by forcing Al to go to bed early.

“I’m sorry.” Al said quietly. “For disrupting dinner.”

“It’s ok. I can understand why you acted the way you did. We have a lot of the same meals here, with not much for variation. With how you and your body react to specific food, it makes sense if you can’t tolerate it after  a while .”

“Alicia treated me like a baby. I hate that. I’m an adult.”

Sarah nodded and scratched her head.

“Tomorrow, you should tell Alicia that. Tell her that you think she’s been treating you like a child, and sensory processing disorder or not, you deserve to be treated with respect, like an adult.”

Althea gave Sarah a small smile, happy that at least someone in the factory understood her.

“Don’t stay up too late.” Sarah said, before heading off to bed.

Althea kept playing cards again after Sarah left, and she lost track of time. When Althea got in a rhythm of doing things, especially something so repetitive and soothing as solitaire, it’s almost like her body can’t stop.

Eventually, Al finally looked up and saw that the daylight was starting to peek over the horizon. The sun would be rising soon.

She sat stock still, suddenly worried about Alicia’s reaction to her staying up all night. Some of the people in their group, like John, Victor and unfortunately Alicia, got up at the crack of dawn to start their day. And Al had no idea what Alicia was going to do when she found out that her girlfriend didn’t sleep a wink the night before.

“Althea, what are you doing up?” She heard, and she turned and saw John looking at her, worried.

“Playing.” She said sleepily, before yawning.

“Did you have a bad dream or something?” He asked, thinking that maybe Al got up to do something to get her mind off of a nightmare.

“No.”

“When did you come down here?”

“After Alicia fell asleep. I pretended to sleep until she did.”

“Did you sleep at all last night?” John asked, realizing that by how tired Al looked, and by what she just told him, it didn’t seem likely that she even went to bed.

“No.”

“Althea, why are you up this early?” Alicia’s voice appeared, and Al shrank back a bit.

“She didn’t even go to bed last night.” John said quietly, filling Alicia in on what Al just told him.

“Althea.” Alicia groaned, putting her head in her hands.

“Games.” Was all Althea said, pointing to the  cards.

Alicia then realized that Al was up playing games because her routine of doing them the day prior was disrupted and she couldn’t go without her routine. Now Althea was going to be tired all day, and if she napped for eight hours, her nighttime routine would be screwed up.

“Ok. Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. Althea stayed up all night, that’s that.” Alicia said after a moment of contemplation.

“What do you want to do with her?” John asked Alicia, seeing that Althea was extremely tired and was stretching out on the floor to sleep.

“Jesus. Althea, Honey, don’t sleep on the floor.”

“Comfy.” Al murmured, and John looked to Alicia.

“Should we put her to bed, or should we give her coffee?”

“Althea, do you want to have some coffee and stay up, or do you want to go to bed?” Alicia asked.

Al looked up at Alicia as if she was in a trance and scrunched up her nose.

“I don’t know.” She said truthfully, though her mind was screaming at her to go to bed.

“I think you should take a little nap.” Alicia said, going over and kneeling down next to her girlfriend.

“I’m mad at you.” Al informed her girlfriend, and Alicia sighed.

“Why are you mad at me?”

“I’m mad.” Al repeated, and Alicia knew that her girlfriend’s exhaustion fueled delirium was going to make things harder than easier.

“Ok. Do you want to tell me why you’re mad, or am I going to have to guess? I can’t read your mind Honey.”

“Sarah knows.” Was all Althea said, and Alicia sighed  again.

“Let’s get you up to bed and maybe when you’re more well rested, we can work through this.”

“Not you.” Althea growled. “I’m mad at you.”

“I’ll put her to bed.” John said quietly, because he knew that Al needed to sleep and if she had a meltdown it wouldn’t be good for anybody.

Alicia nodded and stood back up.

“I’ll go start the coffee.” She said as she left the room.

John took Al up to the bedroom that she shared with Alicia and helped her back into bed. Once she was tucked in, she looked up at him and frowned.

“I’m not a baby.” She stated, and John nodded.

“Of course, you’re not. If you were, you’d be setting the world record for being the tallest baby alive.”

Al smiled at  John’s joke but grew serious again.

“Alicia treats me like a baby and I’m mad at her.”

“Oh, I see.” John said in understanding, everything making sense now. “Well Al, if it makes you feel any better, none of us see you as a baby. You might have differences from us, but we’ll never treat you any different than we did before we knew about your sensory stuff.”

“Thanks.” Al said, before cuddling into the blankets.

“No problem. Get some rest.”

Al nodded and shut her eyes, allowing John to leave her to sleep.

When he went into the kitchen area, he saw Alicia talking to Sarah. It sounded like Sarah was filling Alicia in on the talk she and Al had the night before and Alicia looked discouraged.

When they stopped talking, John spoke up. “Althea told me that she thinks you’ve been treating her like a baby Alicia.”

“You have to understand, sometimes she makes it so hard. All of her picky eating, and her stubbornness, her meltdowns, even some of her stims and comfort objects are more childish.”

“Alicia, it’s actually very easy.” Sarah said gently. “Let her do what she needs to live properly, and don’t punish her for deviating from the norm. Sending her to bed without supper is something my parents used to do when I was a kid. Giving her an early bedtime like she’s a toddler? Alicia, all twelve children living in this factory go to bed at a later time than you sent Al last night.” 

“But she acted inappropriately last night.”

“No, she acted like how we should expect her to act. Thinking about the kind of food we serve here, and her sensitivity towards those foods, this was bound to happen sooner or later. I understand why she’s been getting irritated.”

Alicia sighed, not knowing what to do.

“Just talk with Al when she wakes up and you two can come up with a plan to work it out.” John suggested, and Alicia and Sarah nodded, agreeing with that statement.

“Do you think everyone would be up for another game night tonight? So, Al can make up for the one she missed?” John asked Alicia.

“No, we can’t do game night tonight. It’s Friday.”

“So?”

“So, game night is always on Thursday. Althea will flat out refuse to participate because it won’t feel right for her.” Alicia explained. “Al has a routine and she likes it to be precise. If it even strays from the norm, she either won’t participate, or she’ll have a meltdown. Plus, tonight is movie night John.”

“I guess you’re right.” John said, scratching his head.

A few hours later, it was nine in the morning, and Al came downstairs to find Alicia. She was still tired, but the four-hour nap helped some. Now she wanted some breakfast.

“Good morning Sleeping Beauty.” Alicia remarked when Al found her. She was in the kitchen talking with Sarah. It was Friday so Al knew that the kids were all in warehouse area that was used to hold the radio with Luciana and June, having school. After the gang got the denim factory back from Logan, Morgan agreed to dial it back when it came to helping people. Everyone agreed that if someone or a group came to the denim factory gates looking for assistance, they’d help them. But no more going out and looking for people. That was over.

Now that they were trying to make the denim factory a home, Luciana and June would take the kids into the big room to have school, and all the others would be either working around outside, cleaning stuff up, or working in the garden. 

“Where is everyone?”

“Well, June, Luciana, and the kids are at school. John and Morgan are out hunting, and Victor, Wendell, Grace, Daniel and Dwight are all working on our crops and the gardens.”

“I’m going to go help them, so you two can talk.” Sarah said, getting up and going outside to the gardens.

“Talk about what?”

“First, I know you’re hungry. I’ll make you breakfast, and then we’ll talk.”

It only took a couple minutes but pretty soon, a plate of scrambled eggs was put in front of Althea.

“Ok, so both Sarah and John told me that you told them that you think that I’m treating you like a baby.”

“Last night you did. Early bedtime? Alicia I’m not a toddler that has to go to bed at 6:30. Going to bed that early would screw up my sleep schedule more than me staying up all night.”

Alicia nodded in understanding.

“I’m sorry that I treated you like a baby. Yesterday I was frustrated. Ever since we came back, Morgan promised that we wouldn’t go overboard helping people, but yesterday I found him by the radio again, trying to find people. I don’t want another threat like Logan was to find us. We have a dozen kids living with us now. It won’t do any good if we draw someone in who will hurt us, and jeopardize their futures. Your picky eating was the straw that broke the camel’s back, I guess. I sent you to bed early because I didn’t want to deal with a fight and I was wrong. I should have treated you like I normally do, and I definitely shouldn’t have told you to grow the fuck up. That was extremely disrespectful to you and I am so sorry for saying that to you.”

“I accept your apology.” Althea said, finishing up her eggs.

“I’ll try my hardest to not treat you like a baby, but I also need you to tell me if I ever overstep. Can you do that for me in the future?”

“Yeah. I can do that.”

“Good.”

“What are we going to do today?”

“Well, would you like to work in the garden today? We can check out the tomatoes you planted.”

“Sure.” Al said, going to the sink to clean her plate off.

The two went to the garden by Sarah, Victor, Wendell, Grace, and Dwight, starting to weed the garden that held the tomatoes.

“Is everything ok with you two again?” Sarah asked, when Al sat by her to get by a section of the carrots.

“Yep. All good.” Al said, smiling at Sarah.

“That’s good.” she said.

“Yeah.” Al responded, smiling again as she looked at Alicia, who was over by the potatoes, talking to Grace.

Al and Alicia worked in the garden for the rest of the day, and after supper, which Al choked down without any complaints, everyone in the factory settled down in the big room that was set aside as the movie room. John had found a VHS of Toy Story 2 and that was going to be the movie of the night.

As the opening title came onto the screen, Althea cuddled closer to Alicia and Alicia wrapped her arms around her girlfriend, pulling Al into a hug. While the familiar characters filled the screen, Al snuggled in closer to Alicia and this prompted Alicia to start to play with Al’s hair.

“I love you.” Al whispered, so soft that only Alicia could hear it.

“I love you too.” Alicia responded, kissing  Al’s temple and holding her tight.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!


End file.
